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MIDDLE EAST | Updates from regional conflicts:

• Palestinian health officials say at least 64 people were killed in overnight airstrikes in and around the Gaza cities of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis. [more]
• United Nations officials announced yesterday that the U.N. will not take part in the upcoming Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid operations in Gaza, saying the U.S.-backed and Israel-approved operation is not impartial, neutral, or independent. Reports note that U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher has described the plans for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as a ""fig leaf for further violence and displacement" of Palestinians in Gaza. [more]

UKRAINE | Today is day 1177 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are your updates:

• The first direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are underway in Istanbul, Turkey, today. Analysts say there is little expectation of immediate progress from the relatively low-level talks and note that the two sides have expressed very different criteria for any potential cease-fire or peace deal. [more]
• E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today that the European Union is preparing a new package of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Reports say the new measures include sanctions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, lowering oil price caps, and specific sanctions on more components of the Russian financial sector. [more]

U.S. TARIFFS | Speaking today at the conclusion of his trip to the Middle East, President Donald Trump said that some 150 countries could face higher tariffs on goods exported to the U.S. within weeks if they do not reach new trade deals or accept U.S.-imposed trade conditions. [more]

U.S. DEPORTATIONS | Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis is scheduled to hear arguments today on the Trump administration's invocation of the state secrets privilege to withhold information on the allegedly wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador. [more]

NEW JERSEY AND NEW YORK | Commuters are facing travel disruptions in New Jersey and New York City today after New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike following failed contract negotiations. Reports estimate that 350,000 commuters were left without transportation today due to the strike. [more]

MARYLAND | Attorney General Anthony Brown says an audit of 87 deaths of people while they were in police custody in Maryland from 2002 to 2019 has concluded that 36 of the deaths should have been classified as homicides but were not, and that medical examiners during the period displayed both racial and pro-police bias in their classifications of causes of death in the cases. [more]

U.S. DISASTER RESPONSE | Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency head David Richardson said yesterday that the Trump administration will shift responsibility for disaster response and recovery more to individual states during the upcoming hurricane season as part of FEMA's agency-wide transformation. [more]

FLORIDA | Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law yesterday making Florida the second U.S. state, after Utah, to impose a state-wide ban on fluoride in public drinking water. The move comes amidst objections from dental and public health advocates and a push by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to stop fluoridating water. [more]

GLOBAL ECONOMY | Economists at the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs yesterday predicted global economic growth of 2.4% this year and 2.5% next year – down from last year's 2.9% growth and a decline of 0.4% from the department's January forecasts for 2025 and 2026. The department cited a volatile geopolitical landscape, increased trade tensions, supply chain disruptions, and higher U.S. tariffs as among the reasons for the lower forecasts. [press release] [full report] [more]

INDIA AND PAKISTAN | Reuters cites unnamed sources as saying the Indian government is considering plans to increase its draws from rivers that feed Pakistani farms downstream as part of retaliatory measures for the April attack on tourists in India-controlled Kashmir that New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-backed militants. [more]

BRAZIL | Agriculture Ministry officials today confirmed the first outbreak of avian influenza on a commercial farm in Brazil, which is the world's largest poultry exporter. [more]

THAILAND | Seventeen businessmen, builders, and engineers surrendered to police in Bangkok, Thailand, today after being charged with felony professional negligence causing death in connection with the collapse of a Bangkok high-rise building in the March 28 earthquake that struck neighboring Myanmar. Reports note that 92 people were killed in the building collapse. [more]

NEPAL | Regional delegates opened a three-day environmental conference in Kathmandu, Nepal, today at which the effects of climate change on Himalayan peaks, including Mount Everest, are among the main topics of discussion. Organizers of the “Climate Change, Mountains, and the Future of Humanity" conference say they intend to publish a Kathmandu declaration following the talks. [more]

JAPAN | According to government data released today, Japan's economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter of 2025 amidst consumer confidence and export pressures that analysts say are linked to uncertainty over U.S. tariffs. [more]

CABLE AND BROADBAND INDUSTRY | Charter Communications announced plans this morning to buy privately held rival Cox Communications in a $34.5 billion deal uniting two of the top three U.S. cable and broadband internet operators. [more]

TODAY IN HISTORY | On this date in 1943, German Nazi troops crushed the nearly month-long Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which Polish Jews and partisan fighters, led by Mordecai Anielewicz and the Jewish Fighting Organization, resisted deportation to the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps. [more history]